“match day” – the most infamous day in a medical student’s life – was in march, and in june i’ll be moving to philadelphia, pennsylvania for the next three years! for those who don’t know, the match is a computer algorithm that correlates the rank lists of applicants and residency programs. the process starts with applications, and then (hopefully) interview invitations to specific residency programs in the fall, which one then ranks in order of preference. on match day, every residency applicant finds out at the same time via email where they matched for residency. the mathematicians who developed the algorithm won a nobel prize for their efforts! it usually works out for the aggregate best, but there are never any guarantees that one will end up at somewhere near the top of their list or of matching at all for that matter.
i am absolutely thrilled that i will be doing my residency in pediatrics at my first choice, st. christopher’s hospital for children, which is the pediatric teaching hospital for drexel and temple universities. the hospital is in north philadelphia, in the heart of the “poorest zipcode in america.” the patient population is predominantly african american and very underserved, which is tremendously attractive to me, as on the whole i will much prefer the inner-city to dealing with upper-middle class suburban anti-vaxxers. also thrilled to get to move to the great city of philadelphia! it is a better residency program than i deserve objectively speaking and i am so very thankful to God for this opportunity! all are most welcome to come visit!